Subscribe to this blog

Get GeriPal Email Updates

Search This Blog

GeriPal Enters into the Terrible Twos

On June 19, 2009, GeriPal was born. On that date the post 'Support the Independence at Home Act' was published to the world. Well, really, just probably published to two people: Alex and Eric.

Times have changed since that first post. Our community is larger than we ever expected. Every month we have around 30,000 pageviews from an international audience (the top 5 countries being the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia). In addition to those who come to our website, we also have close to 1,200 individuals who receive our posts via email or RSS readers. We are also now on Twitter (nearly 1000 followers) and Facebook (over 200 followers).

As GeriPal's community grew, so did its recognition. For instance, GeriPal has been mentioned in the NY Times, MSNBC, and the Lancet, as well being recognized as the 2010 Best Clinical Blog in the medical weblogs awards.

All of this would never have happened if was not for our amazing contributors, who have really taken this experiment in disruptive commentary to heart. Reading the list gives you an idea of some of the talent we have on board:

With all this said, our initial vision was to start a dialogue about geriatrics and palliative care on a national stage by creating an online community for people who are passionate about this subject. Making this vision a reality is the true measure of success, and we hope that we are getting close to achieving it. Our community is the thing that keeps us going and keeps the posts flowing.

So, a very big happy birthday to the GeriPal community. Thank you for everything that you have done to make this such a wonderful two years.

What does the next year have in store for us all? We're not sure. However, the one thing we do know is that GeriPal is entering into the 'terrible twos' when toddlers traditionally begin to stretch their boundaries and push their limit. Sounds fun!

Sincerely,

Eric Widera and Alex Smith

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Other Apps

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Other Apps

Comments

Congratulations GeriPal on a great first two years. You guys have done some amazing things. I am glad to see you thriving and dropping off like so many blogs do. A reason why so many blogs stop after a few months? It is hard work.

So a standing ovation from my computer in my office at home for Alex and Eric leading a great group of writers to expand the dialogue. Keep up the great work.

I look forward to many future joint parties with Pallimed and GeriPal in the years to come.

Popular posts from this blog

My colleagues often ask me: “Why are Chinese patients so resistant to hospice and palliative care?” “Why are they so unrealistic?” “Don’t they understand that death is part of life?” “Is it true that with Chinese patients you cannot discuss advance directives?”

As a Chinese speaking geriatrician and palliative care physician practicing in Flushing, NY, I have cared for countless Chinese patients with serious illnesses or at end of life. Invariably, when Chinese patients or families see me, they ask me if I speak Chinese. When I reply “I do” in Mandarin, the relief and instant trust I see on their faces make my day meaningful and worthwhile.

At my hospital, the patient population is about 30% Asian, with the majority of these being Chinese. Most of these patients require language interpretation. It becomes an interesting challenge and opportunity, as we often need to discuss advance directives, goals of care, and end of life care options…

In this week's GeriPal podcast we discuss delirium, with a focus on prevention. We are joined by internationally acclaimed delirium researcher Sharon Inouye, MD, MPH. Dr Inouye is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Aging Brain Center in the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife.

Dr. Inouye's research focuses on delirium and functional decline in hospitalized older patients, resulting in more than 200 peer-reviewed original articles to date. She has developed and validated a widely used tool to identify delirium called the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM), and she founded the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) to prevent delirium in hospitalized patients.

We are also joined by guest host Lindsey Haddock, MD, a geriatrics fellow at UCSF who asks a great question about how to implement a HELP program, or aspects of the program, in a hospital with limited resources.

Estimating prognosis is hard and clinicians get very little training on how to do it. Maybe that is one of the reasons that clinicians are more likely to be optimistic and tend to overestimate patient survival by a factor of between 3 and 5. The question is, aren't we better as palliative care clinicians than others in estimating prognosis? This is part of our training and we do it daily. We got to be better, right?

Big findings from this JPSM paper include that we, like all other clinicians, are an optimistic bunch and that it actually does impact outcomes. In particular, the people whose survival was overestimated by a palliative care c…

GeriPal (Geriatrics and Palliative care) is a forum for discourse, recent news and research, and freethinking commentary. Our objectives are: 1) to create an online community of interdisciplinary providers interested in geriatrics or palliative care; 2) to provide an open forum for the exchange of ideas and disruptive commentary that changes clinical practice and health care policy; and 3) to change the world.

No confidential patient information should be placed on GeriPal, nor should any confidential information be placed in the comments. The information provided on GeriPal is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between a patient and and his/her own medical providers. The editors (Alex Smith and Eric Widera) reserve the right to remove comments that are deemed inappropriate due to the commercial, abusive, or offensive nature of a comment. If you think your comment was deleted for inappropriate reasons, please email either Alex or Eric.

GeriPal's mission is to improve the disemination of information in both geriatics and palliative medicine. GeriPal was created with the support of the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California San Francisco. Its content though is strictly the work of its authors and has no affiliation with or support from any organization or institution. All opinions expressed on this website are solely those of its authors & do not reflect the opinions of any academic institution or medical center. This web site does not accept advertisements. All email addresses collected by GeriPal for feed distribution will be kept confidential and will never be used for commercial reasons. If you reproduce the material on the website please cite appropriately. For questions regarding the site please email Alex Smith, MD (aksmith@ucsf.edu) or Eric Widera, MD (eric.widera@ucsf.edu)